This invention relates to patient-handling apparatus, and particularly to apparatus for lifting limited mobility or invalid patients. More particularly, this invention relates to a patient-handling apparatus mounted on a wheelchair or other vehicle and configured to be integrated into a comprehensive patient transport system for helping non-ambulatory patients move between beds, chairs, and bathroom facilities at home or in a medical care facility.
Many disabled people, given the opportunity, would prefer to live at home with a spouse or other caregiver. Oftentimes this is not practical because of the inability of people with certain disabilities to move around, and in particular, to move back and forth between a wheelchair and a bed or couch. An aged spouse or caregiver is often frail and unable to give adequate or sustained assistance of the type needed to help the disabled person move about in the home. In some cases, the problems faced by sedentary people cannot be overcome and it becomes necessary to relocate such people to nursing homes or medical care facilities where nurses are present around the clock to help lift, support, transport, and otherwise move debilitated patients.
What is needed is an apparatus that can be used easily in either a home setting or a medical care facility by almost anyone to help move sedentary people from one position to another or from one place to another. Ideally, such an apparatus would be fully automated so that it could be controlled and operated by the person seeking increased mobility. In any case, the apparatus should be motorized and designed so that it can be operated by an aged or frail spouse or caregiver to move a patient in need from, for example, a supine position on a bed to a seated position in a chair alongside the bed and vice versa.
According to the present invention, a patient-handling apparatus includes an upright post, a support arm, and means for coupling the support arm to the upright post in a cantilevered position. The patient-handling apparatus further includes means for suspending a patient from the cantilevered support arm and moving the patient along the support arm from one place to another. By raising or lowering the post, it is possible to raise and lower the cantilevered support arm and therefore lift up or let down a patient held by the suspending means mounted on the cantilevered support arm.
In preferred embodiments, the upright post is mountable on a wheelchair to enhance the mobility of the patient-handling apparatus. The suspending means is well-suited for transferring a patient from an adjacent bed to the wheelchair. Advantageously, the coupling means is configured to pivot so as to make it easy for a user to collapse the support arm by moving the support arm from its horizontal cantilevered position above the wheelchair to a vertical stored position alongside the post.
In order to facilitate transfer of a patient from a bed to a seat facing toward one side of the bed, the suspending means is configured to turn a suspended patient about a vertical axis after the patient is lifted off of the bed and before the patient is lowered onto the seat. Ideally, the patient is wearing a comfortable, lightweight body harness or sling which is attached by a cable to the supporting means.
Illustratively, the patient-handling apparatus includes means for holding a patient under the support arm in a suspended position, means for moving the holding means along a path on the support arm toward and away from the post so that a patient held in the holding means is transportable along the support arm in a suspended position, and means for turning the holding means about a vertical axis to turn a suspended patient held in the holding means about the vertical axis. The moving means is operable to move a patient from one place to another without requiring a caregiver to lift the patient. The turning means is operable to turn a patient held in the holding means automatically either when the holding means is stationary or during movement of the holding means along the path on the support arm toward and away from the upright post.
In preferred embodiments, a hand-held control unit is provided to enable either the sedentary patient or a caregiver to operate the patient-handling apparatus by remote control. Illustratively, the various means for moving and turning the patient-holding means as well as means for pivoting the support arm between its cantilevered and stored positions are motorized. By using the handle-held control unit, it is possible for a patient to ride in a motorized wheelchair to a position alongside a bed and instruct the patient-handling apparatus to lift the patient off the wheelchair seat, turn the patient 90.degree. about a vertical axis, move the patient from a position above the wheelchair seat to a position above the bed, and then lower the patient gently onto the underlying bed. Of course, this sequence can be reversed and varied using the hand-held control unit. Advantageously, a frail spouse or caregiver can also use the hand-held control unit to achieve the same results.
The patient-handling apparatus is well-suited for use at home or in a medical care facility. The collapsible nature of the support arm makes it easier to move the apparatus about in a home setting. It will be understood that this apparatus has widespread application including, for example, transferring patients into and out of bathtubs.
The patient-handling apparatus is compatible with an automated system for transporting patients from one place to another in a medical care facility with minimum staff intervention. It is expected that such a system will reduce health care costs. In such a system, each patient would be outfitted with a comfortable lightweight harness and could be moved from one place to another using a mobile patient-handling apparatus. IN some cases, programmed motorized wheel chairs and patient-handling apparatus could be used to transport a patient along a set path in accordance with a predetermined schedule, while in other cases, patients or caregivers could intervene using the hand-held control unit or the like to control the movement and arrival time of the patients at a destination in a medical care facility.
Additional objects, features, and advantages of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon consideration of the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment exemplifying the best mode of carrying out the invention as presently perceived.